Aussies urged to be more game

AUSTRALIANS should be eating more wallaby and kangaroo than beef, according to University of Tasmania lecturer and practising dietician Sandy Murray.

Ms Murray's recommendation stems from a concern about the lack of information regarding sustainable food choices in the Australian Dietary Guidelines released by the National Health and Medical Research Council on February 18.

She said Australians should be more aware of their choices when buying food, and advised people to ensure they were limiting the purchases of packaged foods.

Ms Murray also advocated the benefits of environmentally-fished seafoods.

For the first time, the NHMRC's guidelines warned Australians to ``limit'' their added sugar and salt intake, and placed emphasis on replacing saturated fats with their polyunsaturated or monounsaturated counterparts.

The inclusion of infants in the guidelines was a development Ms Murray supported, citing ``alarming'' numbers of young children with type 2 diabetes.

The recommendation for daily exercise has been raised from 30 minutes to an hour a day, a move personal trainer Mark Connelley welcomed.

Mr Connelley said that while most people thought they couldn't find an hour each day to exercise, they should instead ``accumulate'' exercise throughout the day, through activities such as gardening and walking.

A self-professed ``big supporter'' of the guidelines, Mr Connelley said that people needed to treat themselves like an athlete and ``increase the value and care factor we place on our own health and wellbeing.''

Around 60 per cent of Australian adults are now classified as overweight or obese.

It is estimated that if these trends continue, 83 per cent of the nation's men and 75 per cent of women will fall into these categories by 2025.